Forbes Ranked NFL's Best Fans, And You Already Know Who Was First

posted by Frank Schwab
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2 years ago

(Yahoo!) You can say a lot of things about Green Bay, and coming from someone who lived near there for a while, I've said all of them myself.

But if you do an "NFL's best fans" ranking and have anyone but Packers fans in the top spot, you're trying too hard to be different.

Forbes got it right. They ranked the best NFL fan bases, using a formula of attendance, television ratings, merchandise sales and percentage of population that watched or attended their hometown team's games. The Packers' fans ranked first, because there really is no other option.

According to Forbes, market researchers Nielsen Scarborough found that "84 percent of adults in Green Bay are Packers fans, identified as such having watched, attended, and/or listened to the team’s games this past year." You can't find 84 percent of people in most communities to agree that water is wet, much less on a football team. Now, here's where you say that Packers fans are so into the team because there's nothing else to do in Northeast Wisconsin, and that's what Forbes did:

"It seems little else goes on there to compete for their attention, and anything that does revolves around the team," Forbes wrote.

They've totally glossed over deer hunting and ice fishing and cheese curd and 22-inch kielbasa eating, but that's fine. The Packers are indisputably the NFL's top fans, and I'm sure they're proud to be recognized as such.

PHOTOS: Craziest NFL Fans

Now, you can click that link above and take a look at how they came to those rankings, but I think we can all agree the Steelers and Seahawks need to be in the top 5. After last season's Super Bowl, I'm pretty sure Seahawks fans booked flights to random destinations, just to walk around in their No. 12 jersey and accept congratulations for winning the title. They've been everywhere since early February. And Steelers fans just seem to travel in packs from visiting city to visiting city to buy up all the home team's tickets and be passionate (or, perhaps "obnoxious" if you wish) in their stadium. A bit surprising Washington wasn't in the top 10, but maybe Forbes couldn't remember them because we haven't heard much about the team and its nickname lately.

Here's where you, fans of the 31 teams who did not make the top spot (eh, let's make it 30, I'm not sure there really are any Tennessee Titans fans) can vent. Why did Forbes screw up this ranking of best NFL fans? (Spoiler alert: I bet they're haters against your team.)